Germany to invest proceeds from frequency sales in broadband

BERLIN, March 7 (Reuters) - German Infrastructure Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Friday Berlin will invest the proceeds of planned sales of frequency bands to mobile telephone services in broadband infrastructure expansion.

Germany’s right-left coalition government aims to have broadband of at least 50 megabits a second available across the country by 2018, up from a coverage level of 60 percent. For the upgrade an estimated 20 to 34 billion euros is necessary. (Reporting by Thorsten Severin and Peter Maushagen, editing by David Evans)